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Hagel's other label: Anti-green

“The ethos of energy conservation is deeply embedded at DOD,” Clinton-era Defense Secretary William Cohen said in an email. “Whatever hesitations Sen. Hagel had in the past about climate change, I have no doubt that he will continue the policy that’s been set at the Pentagon and is high on the commander-in-chief’s agenda.”

Wald, head of Deloitte’s Department of Defense practice, said Hagel’s personal views on climate change don’t matter. “I don’t think Hagel is a green proponent as much as he’s going to be an assured-fuel proponent,” he said. “And if it’s clean, all the better.”

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In his written answers supplied this week to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hagel never mentions climate change. But he does walk a careful line on energy that appears designed not to antagonize conservative Republicans who oppose the Pentagon’s recent emphasis on alternative fuels. Hagel called it “prudent” for the military to test whether its equipment can operate on a range of fuel sources and endorsed existing Pentagon policies to use alternatives “as long as mission capability is not restricted.”

“My broad priorities for defense energy investments will be those that increase military capabilities, provide more mission success and lower total cost,” Hagel wrote. “If confirmed, I will focus on both operational effectiveness and efficiency — improving the energy performance of aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and military bases; reducing the vulnerability of our fuel supply lines; lowering the load our expeditionary forces must carry; and diversifying the energy supplies we use.”

Senators vetting Hagel’s nomination said his views on global warming are on an already long list of questions they have on the Middle East, global disarmament and gays serving in the military. “Who are we getting? The guy today or the guy who said things before?” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Steven Hayward, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Hagel’s anti-green stance could make for an interesting exchange during Thursday’s confirmation hearings. “This could be more fun than I thought,” he wrote in a recent blog. “If liberal senators don’t ask about this, I hope some Republicans will, just for the discomfort it will cause on the left.”

Democrats say they are struggling to accept Hagel’s climate change history, but they don’t think it will sink the nomination.

“I’d be more concerned if it was secretary of state,” said Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who has yet to say how he’ll vote on the Hagel nomination.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has already announced her support for Hagel after talking by phone with the nominee about his views on Israel, gay rights and women’s issues, said she’s not going to change her mind because Hagel once battled her on global warming. “I don’t hold against Chuck Hagel something he did 20 years ago on climate, nor do I hold against him some of the things he’s said that I didn’t agree with, that he’s changed, that his positions have evolved on,” she told POLITICO. “He’s going to represent the president’s views.”